


The Last Goodbyes

by I_can_only_imagine



Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Barbara Gordon is Batgirl, Batman: A Death In The Family never happened, Batman: The Killing Joke never happened, Bruce Wayne WAS a Good Parent, Character Death, Gen, Jason Todd is Robin, Joker is DEAD, Tumblr Prompt, Wakes & Funerals
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-27
Updated: 2020-10-27
Packaged: 2021-03-09 03:27:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,963
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27217918
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/I_can_only_imagine/pseuds/I_can_only_imagine
Summary: Alfred Pennyworth says goodbye to his son. Jason Todd says goodbye to his father. Barbara Gordon says goodbye to her friend.Or: In which Bruce dies as Batman with Joker in a freak accident and his family handles the fall out.
Relationships: Alfred Pennyworth & Jason Todd, Barbara Gordon & Alfred Pennyworth, Barbara Gordon & Alfred Pennyworth & Jason Todd, Barbara Gordon & Jason Todd
Comments: 4
Kudos: 36





	The Last Goodbyes

**Author's Note:**

> This takes place a year after Killing Joke and ADitF would have taken place. Dick never had reason to reconcile with Bruce, so that is why he doesn't show up in this fic.

It had been sudden and without warning.

Jason had gotten pneumonia and was stuck at home, and while Bruce usually took time off while Jason was sick, Batman couldn’t be gone for the three weeks of rest Leslie had ordered for Jason. Barbara had instead taken the time off with Bruce and Kate splitting the extra work, and spent the time with Jason in the manor while he recovered.

It had been late at night during the second week of Jason and Barbara being off duty. They were upstairs in a blanket fort they had built together, watching a bunch of cheesy old movies they had compiled from recommendations by Alfred, Commissioner Gordon, and Leslie. Alfred had been below the manor in the batcave when he called the living room on the emergency line to tell Barbara he needed her to get herself and Jason out of Gotham immediately, refusing any further explanation.

They grabbed Jason’s emergency bag from his room and Barbara’s from the guest room she frequently stayed in. Barbara fumbled through Alfred’s medicine cabinet for the antibiotics, pain relievers and cough medicine Leslie had given them for Jason, the panic and her shaking hands causing the cabinet to end up in complete disarray.

They loaded into Barbara’s car and she started driving without looking back. She drove without knowing where she was going, putting as much distance between them and Gotham as she could before Clark called her and sent directions to the Kent family farm in Smallville for them to hide out in. He assured her Ma and Pa had already been alerted to the situation and he would be there to explain everything to them as soon as he possibly could be.

The day after arriving on the Kent farm, Clark had shown up as promised with Alfred, and explained to them that there had been an accident. No one had seen it coming, there had been no battles beforehand, or plots that had led up to it. It had been nothing more than a freak accident, but it had made everything fall apart.

Joker had broken out of Arkham again only an hour before it happened, and Batman had tracked him to an old building in Park Row. When he said old, Clark really meant old, because the building had collapsed with Joker and Batman inside on the fifth floor.

Batwoman had been the first to the scene, and had been the one to recover both of their bodies. The bodies, which were both long dead.

Neither of them had believed it at first. For some reason, it was just impossible in their minds for Batman to die, and even more impossible for Bruce Wayne to die.

During their protests Alfred had started to cry. They stopped as soon as the noticed, dread filling every inch of them. Because they knew Alfred would only cry if it were true that his son was dead.

Clark had pushed on to explain that the first responders learning the identity of the Batman had been unavoidable, as too many were around Kate when she recovered Bruce’s body, and the cowl had been shattered. Alfred had called the emergency evacuation of the remaining family from New Jersey as Commissioner Gordon and Lucius worked on hunting down every first responder who had seen to interrogate them and get them to sign an NDA along with anyone they might have told. The Kents had agreed to take in Barbara, Jason and Alfred, Dick was hiding out in Keystone with Wally, and Kate and Bette had both run to one of Kate’s safehouses in Alaska.

That had been two weeks ago.

In those two weeks a lot had happened. Jim and Lucius had found twenty people in total who knew, all of which had easily signed an NDA with financial compensation for their troubles. Barbara had thrown herself into work in creating a cover story for Bruce’s death to cope with her grief. Alfred and Kate spent hours on the phone or FaceTime making the funeral arrangements. Dick had gone completely radio silent, refusing all calls and visits.

Jason had shut down.

Leslie had shown up to the farm the week Jason was supposed to be fully recovered and instead had to confirm that the pneumonia had relapsed and he would be on rest for an undetermined amount of time. They all knew she and Alfred would have forced Jason to take time off for grieving anyways, but they all let her use the excuse of pneumonia. Jason put up no protest. Hadn’t really said anything at all about the announcement.

They had told the public Bruce had been in an accident that took his life. Bruce had always taught them to stay as close to the truth as possibly with their cover stories without revealing the full truth. Half truths ran in their blood by that point, and they knew now that they would never escape them.

The dim light from a rainy morning flooded the room as Alfred opened the heavy curtains of the full length widow in Jason’s room in the manor. He went around the room opening every curtain of the smaller windows to let in enough light to see without actually turning on the lights in the room. Rain gently drizzled against the windows as soft thunder rolled in the distance.

Barbara wandered into the room when he was halfway through opening the windows and climbed on the bed and started running her hand up and down a sleeping Jason Todd-Wayne’s back. Shockingly he didn’t stur at the contact, his usual hypervigilance when asleep completely gone in the face of grief and illness. When he was done, Alfred made his way to the bed and sat on Jason’s other side so Jason was facing him, and squeezed his shoulder.

“Jason,” he spoke as gently as he could. “My dear boy, it’s time to get up.”

The only response to his words was a tear sliding from the inner corner of Jason’s eye over the bridge of his nose. It was no tell of whether or not he was awake, as they had found him many times in the past couple weeks crying in his sleep. Still Alfred leaned in and pressed a kiss to his temple.

“I know you don’t want to get up, but we need to get down to the courthouse in an hour,” Alfred whispered.

Jason shook his head the slightest bit and squeezed his eyes shut tighter, turning his face further into his pillow.

“Jay,” Barbara joined Alfred’s efforts in just as soft of a voice. “Come on. We need to go or we’ll be late.”

Jason shook his head again.

“How about this: when we finish at the courthouse, we can go out for chili dogs for lunch,” Barbara suggested. “It’s been a while since we’ve gotten to do that.”

“I don’t wanna,” Jason said in a hoarse voice filled with tears.

“I know,” Alfred reminded him. “But we have to.”

“They’re gonna take me away,” Jason shook his head a little harder than before.

“They won’t as long as we can help it,” Barbara promised. “Even if they don’t grant Alfred custody, we have Dick as a backup.”

“I don’t want Dick I want my dad,” Jason said, suddenly descending into violent sobs. “I don’t wanna go, I just want my dad back.”

Barbara laid down in the bed and wrapped Jason in her arms while Alfred stayed with his forehead pressed to Jason’s temple. They would have to get ready a lot quicker than they would have wanted, and take their breakfast on the go, but that didn’t matter in that moment. What mattered was each other. The man who had lost his son, the woman who had lost her friend, the boy who had lost his father, and what they meant to each other was all that mattered.

After a few minutes of crying, Jason finally sat up with Barbara. She gave him a tight hug and whispered reassurances before leaving to get ready. Alfred laid out Jason’s outfit at the foot of his bed and left him after kissing his head again.

They reconverged in the entry hall half an hour later. Alfred was dressed in his usual uniform, a large black umbrella hanging off his wrist. Barbara wore a knee length black dress, black flats, the necklace Bruce had given her for her birthday the year before with a black purse over her shoulder. Jason was dressed the warmest for the sake of not worsening his illness but still in all black in a dress shirt, overcoat, slacks, buckle shoes, and a scarf.

They didn’t speak as they left the manor and got into the car. The drive to the courthouse was just as silent, the only acknowledgement of each other’s presence being Barbara and Jason holding hands in the back seat.

The court was solemn as they listened to the reading of Bruce’s will. Wayne Enterprises, the manor, and the family fortune was left to Jason as Bruce’s only heir with large trust funds left in both Dick and Barbara’s names. Until Jason turned eighteen, the Wayne fortune would remain locked to all access, their financial support coming completely from a bankaccount Bruce had set aside in Alfred’s name. Lucius would be the acting CEO of WE until Jason was fit to take over the company himself. Wayne Manor would be in Alfred’s care until Jason turned eighteen.

The most pressing issue that had them all holding their breath was the last to be disguised in the will.

“The custody of Jason Todd-Wayne will fall to Alfred Pennyworth, the butler of the Wayne family, for Jason’s last three years as a minor,” the judge announced. “Should Pennyworth pass away or be found unfit to care for the child, he will go to his adoptive mother Natalia Knight who has recently been released from Black Gate and deemed fit to care for him. Should Knight fall back into her criminal ways or pass on, his father’s cousin, Katherine Kane, will take up custody. In an emergency situation or between transfers of custody, Jason would be cared for by James Gordon or his daughter Barbara Gordon.”

A sigh of relief silently rippled through the family and they relaxed the slightest bit. Natalia pulled her son close to her and kissed his head while Alfred squeezed his shoulder. For the first time in weeks Jason let himself relax even by the slightest bit.

They left the courthouse with Natalia, Kate, Jim and Bette all promising they would meet back up before the funeral. Barbara ran to the car before Alfred could catch her for stealing the car keys and got in the driver’s seat, refusing to move despite Alfred’s protests. In the end, Alfred climbed into the backseat with Jason and Barbara drove them to the street corner with Jason’s favorite chili dog stand to make true on her promise.

Barbara tried to lighten the mood once or twice. She managed to hold a conversation with Jason about a book for a few minutes, but neither really had the energy to keep it up for more than that. They were all too tired for much.

When they finished their lunch and found there was nothing else they could think to do to pass the time, they made their way to the church where the service was being held. It was the same church the serve for Thomas and Martha had been held in. Stepping into it for Alfred was knowing the place to be a trap but going in anyways because he knew he had to.

Natalia, Clark, Oliver, and Lucius and his family were the only ones who had gotten there earlier than them. The three took their seats beside Natalia that she had saved for them, and Barbara held the two last seats of the row for her father, and the man she had once loved who deep down she knew wasn’t coming. Jason leaned into Natalia’s open arm and rested his head on his shoulder as he stared blankly ahead. Alfred held both of their hands and tried to soothe some of the pain just by letting them know he was there.

More slowly filtered into the church and took their seats. Kate and Bette sat in the row in front of them with Kate’s father and both of Bette’s parents. The rest of the core Justice League who had been close to Bruce sat near Clark and Oliver. Business partners who were deemed worthy, Selina, and Leslie sat scattered through the congregation room. The church was nowhere near filled, but they all knew Bruce would have prefered to have the few handfuls of people who really cared there over the ones who pretended to care and he pretended to like for the sake of public image.

The service started. Friends said kind words and forced smiles that were too sad to mean anything to the father, son, and friend of the man who laid in the closed casket that would be opened later for them to say their goodbyes. A priest spoke but his words rang hollow to a room whose majority occupants had stopped believing any god, or at least the god he was talking about, was real.

Alfred stayed strong through the services. He kept his head held high and the tears from falling from his eyes. He would cry in private and with the people he loved in the comfort of his own home, thank you very much.

Barbara cried through the whole thing for a multitude of reasons. His friend and near surrogate father being gone, Dick not showing up, the knowledge of the responsibility that was about to fall on her and Kate. It was overwhelming in all the worst ways.

Jason ‘s tears were silent, and he never looked up from Natalia’s shoulder. Despite three of his parents now being dead, this was the first funeral he had gotten to be in attendance of, and he wanted nothing more than to run out of the church and hide. Hide from this god the priest spoke of, and from his friends and family who he couldn’t bear to look at for more than a minute at a time.

The service ended and the casket was opened for them to say their goodbyes.

Jason took the large bouquet of black and red roses they had chosen, and was nudged towards the isle by Alfred, Barbara and Natalia. He kept his eyes on the ground and clung to the bouquet as he walked down the aisle towards the now open casket that he didn’t want to look inside. He could feel everyone in the service’s eyes on him.

He went up the three steps and stopped in front of the casket, quickly closing his eyes before he could see the inside.

In. Out. In. Out. He needed to breathe or this would become too much and he would break.

He opened his eyes and looked down into the casket, and started shaking through his tears despite all his efforts.

Because it was his father inside the casket. He had known that it would be, of course, but it was so different to actually see it himself. The way Bruce’s skin had gone pale without the rush of blood under it, the caked on makeup to cover up the bruises and injuries that would never heal, the vlack suit Jason had known to be Bruce’s favorite. His eyes were peacefully closed, hands folded over his chest, and moth closed in a way that could only be forced and artificial.

Jason reached in with a shaking hand and took the cold hand of his long gone father and squeezed it. No warmth. No pulse. No Bruce.

“I promise,” Jason started but had to stop himself. Whispering took effort with how much he was crying, but he didn’t want to speak loud enough for anyone else to hear. Only Bruce was supposed to hear this.

He took a deep, trembling breath, and started over, “I promise I’ll be strong. I’ll keep fighting to help Gotham. I’ll make you proud.”

Like a ghost in the back of his mind he was sure he could hear Bruce say  _ I already am _ like he always did. But Jason just let it stay there in the back of his mind and refused to dwell on it. He instead laid the boquet down and folded Bruce’s hands over it, and pressed one last goodbye kiss to his head.

Alfred and Barabra placed their singular roses after him, both having a similar moment of goodbye with a promise. Alfred promised to keep Jason safe and continue raising him into the good boy he was. Barbara promised to not let him down and keep Gotham afloat, and to take over where he had left off in helping her father clean up the GCPD.

Friends and family all followed after them until Bruce’s chest was covered in roses and the casket filled with promises and love.

The casket was closed and brought out to the hearse. For this part, only Bruce’s family followed. Alfred, Jason, Barbara, Jim, Kate, Bette, Clark, Oliver, Selina, Natalia. That was the family that followed the hearse back to Wayne Manor, and that was the family that gathered under umbrellas as the casket was lowered into the ground beside the graves of Thomas and Martha Wayne.

The last goodbyes were given. The last words were spoken.

Jason stepped forward and released the first handful of dirt into the grave. The others followed in near unison. Then they left the undertakers to their job, and went inside the manor together to grieve.

**Author's Note:**

> Kudos and comments give me life so if you liked the story feel free to leave some!  
> Come find me over @what-if-i-imagine on tumblr where my asks, prompts, and requests are always open!


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